Plover nest will close Nauset Spit starting June 30

Monday

Jun 19, 2017 at 6:38 AM

Doreen Leggett dleggett@wickedlocal.com @dleggettCodder

When piping plovers closed Nauset Spit to oversand vehicles for almost half the summer in 2013 a group of people banded together to try and find a way to protect the threatened birds and the tradition of a beach community,

Four years later, the group has had much success and Orleans has led the way in the state by developing a new program that put people on the beach while safeguarding the dust-bunny-size chicks that call the barrier beach their home.

But the system isn’t perfect.

On June 30 Nauset Spit will close to oversand vehicles for 30 to 35 days because of a piping plover nest. The timing depends on when, exactly, the chicks fledge, and whether any re-nesting is required if, say, a predator attacks the chicks before they're able to fly away, or if a storm destroys a nest, and the parents have to start all over again.

The existing nest is in the same spot, close to the entrance to the vehicle trail, where it was when residents were galvanized to take action back in '13.

“I really feel there has got to be a way we can get on there,” Selectman Dave Currier said. “We ought to be able to figure out a way. We are a beach town.”

Currier, who was not a selectman back then, was one of many who packed the selectman’s meeting room several years ago asking for help.

That meeting, and the efforts of former selectmen in both Orleans and Chatham, fostered the first Habitat Protection Permit for plovers in the Commonwealth.

And Orleans has one. That permit, which has been refined over the last couple of years, has helped those who take to the trails. The permit allows those with a sticker to use escorts to get past two piping plover nests.

On Nauset's South Beach side, the nests typically have been in the Pochet bottleneck and, in the past, their presence kept oversand vehicles off the beach through mid-August. Sometimes beyond.

This year Natural Resources Director Nathan Sears said the proactive steps the town has taken could allow for self-escorted vehicles through that area as early as July 15.

The south side of Nauset, which extends toward Chatham, has been closed since June 7 because of piping plover nests. (That section of beach is open to anyone who buys a sticker, whereas the spit is restricted to Orleans residents.)

Sears said town staff is currently watching over 17 piping plover nests on both sides of the beach. They have a management program in place that starts in March and includes electrified exclosures with decoys. Those exclosures are designed to teach predators to stay away from the metal cages once the piping plovers arrive in April.

So far there have been very few eggs lost to foxes and coyotes, the typical culprits.

And the program is building upon the success of last year. The animals that were shocked by electricity in the past will very likely teach their offspring to stay clear of the contraptions. Sears said that this non-lethal method is actually more effective than killing a coyote because another coyote will just come in and occupy that territory.

“It is a vicious cycle,” he said. “So this is a long-term fix. The town of Orleans is doing everything it can to minimize beach closures.”

Sears added that the HCP allows folks to get by two broods of unfledged chicks, but even if the town was allowed more “takes,” as they are called, it wouldn’t help on the spit side.

“I have no measures in the HCP to get around that scenario,” he said.

On the spit, the nest, which has four eggs, is in a spot where there isn’t enough of a buffer to move it and even if there was space the chicks would be running around right where the vehicles would park.

Currier, as well as resident John Sargent, understand the rules currently offer no opportunity for residents to gain access to the spit for July. But they also both know that before the town officials and others worked to get a habitat permit there seemed to be little hope as well.

“It’s very unfortunate,” said Sargent, who was among many who packed the selectman’s room several years ago to demand a change.

He said the situation isn’t helped by Eastham’s decision not to allow vehicles on its half of the beach.

“It’s a very big deal for people here,” said Sargent. “That’s why we are here. Beaches and beach access. Otherwise we can live in Brockton.”